Coffee, Cookies, Keychains
by ArcherGirl12
Summary: Annabeth Chase has the most boring life ever. Her whole life has, was and is Coffee, Cookies, Keychains. What will change when a boy with sea green eyes tries to rob her family's snack bar? A parody of the short story, "Coffee, Snacks, Worms" except I've changed the character and added a little bit of Percabeth to it... Rated K. Disclaimer: All rights go to Rick R. and Karleen B.


**Hi guys! I know that I haven't posted anything in while... how long has it been? A year? Well anyway, this is a parody of the short story, "Coffee, Snacks, Worms" by Karleen Bradford and since I'm obsessed with HoO... well this happened. I've only changed some of the details of the story and added a few things to make the story suit the HoO characters. (No flames please) So, I hope that you enjoy it! **

**Disclaimer: All rights go to Rick Riodarn for these amazing characters and Karleen Bradford for this awesome story plot.**

_Hazel took a step backwards, then stopped. She looked behind her and gasped in terror. The cliff edge crumbled beneath her feet, and far below her the sea crashed the jagged, pointed rocks in an insane fury._

_"No!" she cried._

_But the terrible form of the terrible monster advanced remorselessly. Its hands reached out for her throat... She could feel its hot breath burning her cheeks... There was no escape!_

"Annabeth you dodo! It's your stop. You're home!" said her best friend Thalia Grace.

Annabeth Chase came back to reality with a jolt and gathered her papers of the story she was writing. Flushing, she came over clambered over Thalia and struggled along the aisle toward the bus door.

"Bye Annabeth!" called Piper Mclean.

"See you tomorrow Annabeth!" exclaimed Katie Gardner.

The cries followed her.

"Call me with the answers when you've finished the math homework!"

Annabeth gave Octavian Izanidiot a withering glance. The top math student in sixth grade, or even maybe the entire middle school, he'd never miss an opportunity to embarrass Annabeth or put her down. Only that day he had made a fool out of her by deliberately drawing the teacher's attention to her when he knew she was writing her story.

"Making another ridiculous story, Annabeth?" Mrs. Dodds had asked impatiently. Ridiculous! She hadn't been writing a "ridiculous" story. She'd been writing out her exquisite story. For some reason, that seemed to annoy Octavian Izanidiot.

Without bothering to answer him she fought her way through the bus and stepped off onto the road.

She stopped for a moment and looked at the buildings in front of her. Home. A crummy little garage and snack bar, sitting all alone like an unwelcomed wart on the side of this dusty American highway. Painted in broad, garish, vertical orange and white stripes. As if it didn't stick out enough already. A stack of useless-looking tires leaned against a drooping air hose that had stopped working months ago. A peeling, creaking sign on front of the snack bar read:

COFFEE

COOKIES

KEYCHAINS

Coffee, cookies, keychains! That was her whole life? Her whole had been coffee, cookies, keychains, Her whole life was going to be coffee, cookies, keychains. It was the most boring life in the whole world. This

was the most boring place in the whole world. Nothing ever happened here. She hated it. With every fiber of her whole being, she hated every single orange and white stripe!

Heaving a sigh of anger and frustration, Annabeth slouched around the horribly, and architecturally unstable, building and slammed through the back door of her family's living quarters.

"Annabeth, I have to take Matthew to the dentist and Bobby hasn't shown up." Her step-mother said with in a frantic tone, rushing around to gather her things. "Could you take care of the snack bar for an hour or so by yourself? I hate to leave you alone. Your dad's not here, but he's shut the gas station down so you don't have to worry about that. Can you manage? It shouldn't be for long... Do you mind...?"

Her mother and her hadn't been the closest, but as Annabeth grew up her mother became her role model. One day, when Annabeth was only 7, her mother had gone missing. Since then, her father had been depressed but eventually remarried when Annabeth was 8. Her father had twins with her step-mother and had been so distracted with them that he usually neglected Annabeth. Annabeth knew that she reminded her dad of her mother so much that it made him depressed. So, she often tried to avoid him for his sake. Her step-mother though was an entirely different story, let's just say that she wasn't the nicest to Annabeth. She only acted pleasant to her when she wanted her to do something.

"Fine," she muttered to her step-mother. Throwing her backpack onto the couch, she quickly grabbed her story and went on through into the snack bar.

There were only two customers there, both almost finished. Annabeth took their money, shrugged when neither one left a tip, and set to wiping up the tables after them. A trucker came in and asked for coffee. She gave it to him, hardly noticing what she was doing. A scruffy kid came in and bought a keychain. He and the trucker both left. She was alone again. So, she decided that since is was alone, she would continue her story...

_Hazel pressed herself against the wall, straining against the ropes that tied her fast. The tunnel was pitch dark, but already she could feel the vibrations of the approaching train, hear its lonesome, wailing whistle. But, strain as she might, she knew that it was hopeless. There wasn't enough clearance between the wall and the train for a living, breathing body! Frantically, she twisted her hands, feeling the coarse rope cut into her flesh. She reached down to her shoulder and grabbed the rope that bound her there between her teeth. She ground her jaws together desperately..._

"I've got a knife! Give me all the money in the cash register!"

Annabeth hadn't even heard the door open. She looked up incredulously. A thin, sick-looking boy with sea green eyes was leaning on the counter, staring at her. A knife? He had a knife? It suddenly occurred to her that Annabeth had never been threatened with a knife. Sure, Annabeth had trained in martial arts and had learned how to use different types of knives and daggers but, she had never been threatened with one. She was curious about what type of knife he had.

"What kind of knife?" she asked.

"What do you mean, 'What kind of knife?'" the boy echoed. "A big knife! With a very long, sharp blade! And I'm going to cut you with it if you don't give me all the money in that cash register right now!"

With a shock, Annabeth realized that he meant it. Then she took a closer look at him.

He doesn't look any older than I am, she thought. And he looks scared silly. I'll bet that he doesn't have a knife. No way does he have a knife.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why what? Look- are you going to get that money are am I going to have to cut you?" He still didn't make a move towards any knife.

"Why do you want the money?"

"Why?" he echoed again. "Because I'm starving, that's why. I haven't eaten in two days."

"Well, that's not very smart," Annabeth said, placing her story onto the side. The boy's mouth dropped open and he stared at her. "What I mean is... If you're really starving and you steal money from here that's not going to help you much. Like, you're hardly going to steal the money here, then order some cookies or something and pay me for it, are you?"

The boy didn't seem to be able to answer.

"I mean. If you steal the money here, you're going to have to light out fast, right? Then, I'll call the police. Then, as far as I can see it, they'll either catch up with you and drag you to the police station-and you can be sure that they won't feed you there-or if you do get away you'll have to hitchhike or something and get as far away as you can, as fast as you can. Either way, you're not going to get anything to eat, and you're still going to be hungry." As she spoke, Annabeth took a pair of oven mitts, put them on and turned towards the oven.

"What... What are you doing?"

"Giving you some cookies, duh. You said that you were starving, didn't you?" She pulled the tray of cookies out of the oven, placed them on the counter and pushed it towards him.

The boy stared at her.

"Go ahead. Eat it. It's not made of worms or anything." Kate stared back at him belligerently. "They're cookies, not dog treats. Dog treats are for dogs, cookies are for people."

The boy hesitated for a moment. He was standing, poised, as if ready for flight or attack but even he didn't know which. Then, as if of its own accord, his hand reached for the cookies. Within seconds, he was wolfing it down desperately.

"Wow, you weren't kidding about being hungry, were you?" Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. She grabbed a mug, filled it up with milk and set it in front of him.

The boy didn't say a word, just sat down and gulped the food so fast he didn't seen to be chewing at all. Annabeth cut off a large slice of apple pie and slid that in front of him as well.

When he finished, the boy pushed himself back from the counter and looked up at Annabeth with slightly glazed eyes.

"You work here all the time?" he asked.

"My parents owned the place," she answered shortly.

"They let you give away food like this?"

"No."

Times were even harder then usual lately, and Annabeth knew that her step-mother had every bit of food counted and measured. She'd answer for this.

"Who'll pay, then?" the boy asked.

"I will." She gathered up his dishes and almost threw them in the sink.

"But... How...?"

"It's okay. I've got money. I work Saturdays at the mall."

The boy stared at he in silence. Kate was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"Have you ever done anything like this before?" she asked finally, gesturing towards the cash register. "I mean, you know, tried to hold up a place?"

"No." He sounded sheepish.

"Just as well, you're not very good at it."

"I guess not."

There was another awkward silence.

"What were planning on doing? After you got the food?" Annabeth concentrated hard on scrubbing the already clean glass and plates.

"Hitching a ride west. I'm going to find a job out there."

"I don't think you will," Annabeth said. "My cousin Malcolm has a friend went out a few months ago-he couldn't get a job anyhow and had to hitch his way back. He got home a week ago, tired, broke and as sick as a dog."

"Well," the boy protested angrily. "What else is there? What am I supposed to do?"

Annabeth abandoned the dishes. "You know anything about boats?" she asked.

"Boats! I should think so. I practically breathe boats!"

Annabeth raised her eyebrow.

"And motors?"

"Sure. If you know boats, you know motors."

"Seems to me," Annabeth went on, "that Neptune is looking for someone to hire to help out for tourist season. He was just here the other day, saying that he needed some help." She picked up a dishcloth from the sink and started wiping the counter furiously. "We need some help too. The guy who usually helps out around here, left town a few days ago. You know how to bake cookies?"

"Sure, I have some experience."

"Anyway," she went on, "there's work around here if you want it, I guess."

"What about... About what I said when I came in?"

"Oh, that." Annabeth turned to face him. "Forget it. I didn't believe you anyway."

"I could work then. At least until I got enough to pay you back..."

Annabeth smirked, "Well, Seaweed Brain, seems to me you just might as well."

"Seaweed Brain?"

"Well, you didn't exactly think out the flaws of your plan and you said that you practically breathe boats, didn't you?" Annabeth said.

"Yeah. I guess I might."

He pulled himself off the stool and headed for the door, then stopped to stare back at her for a moment. There was a strange, unreadable expression on his face, but all he said was, "Thanks." At the entrance he paused, took something out of his pocket, and threw it in the trash barrel.

Annabeth took a step backwards and felt for a chair. Her legs had felt as if they were made of melting lead. She sank onto the chair as the door slammed shut. She'd only had a glimpse of the object as the boy had tossed it into the garbage, but that was enough.

He had had a knife!

For a moment, she felt sick at the thought of what could have happened. Then, came a spark of inspiration and Annabeth was scribbling once again on her paper...

_Hazel looked up, startled, as the snack bar door burst open. There, in front of her, stood a dishevelled, disreputable, totally terrifying figure. He swayed slightly from greed and hunger, as he walked menacingly towards her, but she only had eyes for the gleaming, evil-looking, long-bladed knife that he carried in his right hand. It was pointing straight at her heart..._

**So... did you like it? **

**(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

**~ArcherGirl12**


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